Week one - 25/02/2013 - 03/03/2013
Personal Development
Personal Development
As
I write my first blog entry, the words ‘Adventure’ and ‘Laughter’ seem fitting
to sum up the events of the past few days. Warren Stewart, a fellow aspiring
teacher and good friend of mine was to accompany me on our European venture
where we would be spending the next four and a half months in Linz, the third
largest city in Austria and the capital of the
state of Upper Austria.
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A daily walk along the Danube River |
As I made my way to Dublin
airport I experienced feelings of genuine excitement and to an extent some anxiety,
after all without my Mother around who was going to cook for me? Wash and Iron
my clothes? And most importantly get me out of bed in the morning? Lao Tzu
famously said “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” and
in our case the first step happened to be on German soil where we would spend
an extremely enjoyable and entertaining evening in the Bavarian capital of
Munich.
Although our time in Munich was
short, I was fortunate enough to get a real insight into German culture. On the
other hand after sharing a room for the night with Warren I was unfortunate to
discover that my accomplice is prone to snoring, meaning the decision to get a
single room in Linz was among the best I have made.
A truly picturesque and scenic
train journey took us to Linz in under two hours. Here, we were greeted by an
extremely tall and friendly Austrian man named Stefan who would turn out to be
our student mentor for the next few months, this was great news. Stefan very
kindly helped us with our luggage and drove us across the city to our
residence. As we crossed the river Danube and headed for the city centre I was immediately
impressed by some of the local architecture. The blend of classic and gothic
with modern and futuristic buildings was really different to construction I had
experienced before and was something that I was very much looking forward to
exploring during my time here.
The next few days were packed full of fun activities that were organized by our university, Pädagogische Hochschule (University of Education, Upper Austria). We were given the chance to meet and have breakfast with our fellow Erasmus students, go ice-skating, complete city-tours and try sledging which proved to be an extremely enjoyable experience.
It really was wonderful to be mixing with people from countries such as Turkey, Spain, Czech Republic and Finland to name but a few. The Erasmus Programme is a truly multi-cultural experience and allows you to become immersed in other cultures and hopefully make new friends along the way.
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A great snap of the Erasmus group |
It really was wonderful to be mixing with people from countries such as Turkey, Spain, Czech Republic and Finland to name but a few. The Erasmus Programme is a truly multi-cultural experience and allows you to become immersed in other cultures and hopefully make new friends along the way.
During my time in Linz I am determined to
pick-up some of the language, after all "Those who know nothing of
foreign languages know nothing of their own."
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). Due to it’s geographical location
Languages
in Austria are
varied and assorted in nature, with German being the official and the most
widely spoken language of the land. It is therefore
my aim to take this great opportunity to learn the language to the best of my
ability.
As I conclude my first blog entry with a lovely cup of Turkish
tea I can only hope the rest of my time here will be as gratifying and
fulfilling as my first week.
Tschüs,
James
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